We are delighted to announce the winner of the Bath Novel Award 2026. The prize, now in its 13th year, was established in the UNESCO city of Bath and celebrates unagented emerging novelists worldwide.

Previous Bath Novel Award winners include New York Times bestselling authors Abi Daré, for The Girl with the Louding Voice, and Ben Reeves, for Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt.

Submissions were invited from December 2025 through May 2026. We received a record number of 3,617 manuscripts from authors in 99 countries. This year’s longlist includes 19 novels by emerging authors in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, while the shortlist features writers in Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and the UK.

Our heartfelt thanks to Amanda Harris of Maven Literary, for her care and expertise in judging this year’s winning novel.

Judge’s comments: “Huge congratulations to the shortlisted authors. It was an honour to judge such an impressive selection of fresh fiction. The finalists’ work was accomplished, and I found the judging process incredibly hard – genuinely. Each novel had its unique merits. I was interested to note, there was a contemplative golden thread running through the final four. Whether dark crime, commercial fiction or magical-realism folklore, each of the titles explored the light and shade of life. Identity, obsession, grief, and human pain featured heavily throughout the shortlist, and the novels’ twists and discomforts stayed with me, long after reading the manuscripts.” – AMANDA HARRIS

The Bath Novel Award 2026 Winner – £5,000 prize

Judge’s Comments: ‘Child of Necessity is an impressive thriller. As reading habits polarise between seeking joy and embracing darkness, this chilling and brutal novel has a clear route to market, and a readied, and hungry, readership. With its plot-driven, transatlantic setting, Child of Necessity reads like an internationally ambitious and complex novel, shocking its readers with every page. It’s very dark, in an affecting and memorable way, reminding me of All the Colours of the Dark. Like Whitaker, the author asks the reader to sit in deep discomfort. I finished it wanting more: more time in this troubled world, and with these vividly flawed and well-drawn characters.’ – AMANDA HARRIS

TRACY RICKETT works in technology and lives in Lincolnshire with her family. Child of Necessity is her first novel, sparked by single line of dialogue which lodged in her head while dog walking in the wide open landscapes around Lincoln. It centres on FBI Agent Rose Flack who, while still raw from her own bereavements, is drawn into a joint serial killer investigation with the Metropolitan Police. The novel brings together the things that draw Tracy most as a reader: “Procedural detail, a tangible sense of place, and complicated characters whose relationships are tested by difficult choices all mattered to me. At its heart, the story is about moral compromise and the cost of living with decisions made when there seemed to be no alternative.”

The Bath Novel Award 2026 Shortlist

Judge’s Comments: ‘I enjoyed the concept of this novel and was intrigued by its premise – an agency providing a service that severs heartache from its clients. As the novel progresses, the agency becomes less relevant to the plot, and a love story – a refreshingly realistic one – becomes the main driving narrative. The novel delivers some memorable scenes and a wonderful study of sisterly love. I particularly enjoyed its heartwarming and picture-perfect ending.’ – AMANDA HARRIS

SARA BROWN-MOORE is a Dublin‑based technology consultant and lives with her husband and their blended family of three children. The Broken Heart Agency the story of Delia who, while still grieving her dad discovers that her husband has been cheating on her and wants a divorce. The novel blends emotional realism with near-future speculative elements and explores resilience and healing with hope and humour, drawing on Sara’s experience of divorce, miscarriage, bereavement, and her husband’s combat‑related PTSD. Earlier drafts of The Broken Heart Agency listed for the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2025 and Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2026.

Judge’s Comments: ‘A thought-provoking novel with compelling plot twists. Readers are taken on a rollercoaster of a narrative ride, as this sinister read keeps us guessing … then flourishes into a moving and life-affirming novel. It’s a nail-biter till we get there, however. Obsession, bloodied baby grows, twitching curtains and stalking neighbours bring the crazy but also a deeply moving and lasting message of what it means to be a good mother. And a good friend. A very well-written novel.’ – AMANDA HARRIS

JUDITH DUFFY is originally from Hungary, works in marketing and lives in the Middle East with her Irish husband and their third-culture children. Good Mothers Lie is a domestic noir which explores fertility, family and the lengths a mother will go to for their child. Set in a gated Middle Eastern enclave, it’s the story of an expat mother who is befriended by a mysterious neighbour and grew from Judith’s own struggle to become a parent while mourning the sudden loss of her mother. An earlier draft of Good Mothers Lie won the Irish Writers Centre’s International Debut Novel Competition 2025 and longlisted for the Write Mentor Award 2025 and Blue Pencil Agency 2025 Pitch Prize.

Photo credit: Riki Auton for Artiq

Judge’s Comments: ‘This is a powerful and original novel – an accomplished piece of writing, sharply observed and witty from the very first page. The similes are so beautifully crafted, they slowed my reading and, at times, even stopped me in my tracks; I found myself highlighting them on the page. I was impressed by its skilful and original exploration of generational racism, mixed-race identity and intersectional sexism, and the shifting points of view are handled deftly throughout. It was a very strong contender.’ – AMANDA HARRIS

ZOË WILKINSON is a London-based British-Caribbean artist and a 2026 Saatchi Rising Star. She has an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art where her honours included the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship. Drowning in Postcolonial Blue is the story of Tamzin, a final year student at Exeter University who must confront uncomfortable realities about her partner and personal life after encountering Caribbean spirits at her lecturer’s house. The novel explores double consciousness, imagined homeland and colonialism, and was completed while on an Arts Council funded residency at the University of Guyana. Zoë is also the recipient of two Curtis Brown Creative Breakthrough Scholarships for Writers of Colour.

The Bath Novel Award 2026 Longlist

Louise Beere	The Glove Maker of Spitalfields
Anna Boulton Briggs	The Flight of Florence Thorby
Sara Brown-Moore	The Broken Heart Agency
Elin Daniels	The Hollow Mountain
K Dewar	The Humanitarian
Liselotte Doorduijn	Dark Water
Judith Duffy	Good Mothers Lie
RT Ensari	The Matbakh
Liz Isaacs	The Lucas Lie
Suzanne Lizanich-Aro	What Remains
Frances Merivale	The Lywood Girl
Charlotte Morgan	The Society of K
Fortune Ogulere	The African Yankee
Charlotte Plimley	When the River’s Ready
Tracy Rickett	Child of Necessity
Dina Rippon	Operation Flamingo
Christopher Shevlin	Plum Versus the Nazis
Zoë Wilkinson	Drowning In Postcolonial Blue
Monika Wood	Monsieur Claude and the Murder in the 13th Arrondissement

The Cornerstones PWA Longlist Prize

Sponsored by Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy, the Cornerstones PWA Longlist Prize is awarded to the author of the most promising Bath Novel Award longlisted manuscript. The recipient wins a place on the 18 week online course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way worth £3,750.

Judges’ Comments: “We loved The Society of K. There is an intriguing start when the last person our protagonist ever wants to see again rocks up on her Scottish island. The revelation that a murder that occurred 14 years ago is going to be revealed had us desperate to read more.” – MONICA CHAKRAVERTY & KYRIE ROXBY of Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.